February 25, 2016

Republican Fainting Couches

As Trump continues to win in the primary ballot box and in the caucus race, I am endlessly amused by the reaction of the Republican establishment, not to mention earnest outsiders. (I'm not a fan of earnestness even at the best of times.)

Starting today, we're getting a huge smear job. I saw one article which talked about how Trump didn't serve in the military during the Viet Nam War. Another one talked about how he did a lot of sleeping around when he was young (gasp!). These were by people in the establishment trying to make those knuckle dragging religious plebes turn against Trump -- and they won't work. The establishment is completely missing the point.

Trump's voters are not voting for him because of what he is. They're voting for him because of what he is not. He isn't part of the establishment, and he clearly doesn't like the establishment -- and a lot of voters feel the same way. Republican candidates each two years come out and talk the talk, and get elected, and then go to Washington and forget all that.

I wrote about that last September. The Republicans aren't really in opposition to the Democrats; on most things they want the same result. And the Republicans seem to value collegiality to an insane extent; the thing they're most worried about is angering the Democrats and the Democratic media (which is to say, most of it).

Middle American Republicans are tired of that shit, and the reason they're voting for Trump is because he's a bull in the china shop. The one thing he clearly doesn't give a damn about is collegiality.

Maybe his presidency would be bizarre. Maybe it might even be catastrophic (though it would be tough to be as catastrophic as Obama has been). But the one thing that is certain is that it will shatter the existing order. And that is what his voters are voting for. It's what they really care about.

So how do more main-stream candidates beat him? The first step is to recognize what it is he offers that the voters really want -- and that's exactly what none of them are willing to do, because they're part of the establishment trying for the latest time to sell the voters a bill of goods.

The (Republican) voters want a complete outsider, one not beholden to the existing power structure, one not afraid of it and willing to say things that make the insiders gasp and head for their fainting couches. That means that in this Republican campaign Senators and Governors are all doomed before they begin. The simple fact that they're already part of the existing power structure is enough to render them unacceptable to the people who are voting for Trump.

And every time someone in the existing power structure gasps and moans and tries to bring Trump down, Trump grins and his support grows. Because it's obviously a desperation move -- and it completely misses the target.

For instance: Trump has been doing the H1-B game in his resort in Florida. Gasp! Stunning! Hey, all you plebes! Look at this!

Well, the answer is Trump didn't make the rules, and he has a fiduciary duty to his stock holders to make his business as profitable as he can. If that means firing highly paid Americans and hiring foreign workers, then that's what the rules of the game say he's supposed to do. That's all it means.

It doesn't mean he's a hypocrite, which is what the scandal-mongers hope all the sloping foreheads will take from it.

The kind of people who are voting for Trump have spent years, decades even, being held in contempt by the existing order -- and now they're returning the favor. What they want is for the existing order to get destroyed. If there were a better candidate they thought capable and willing to do that, he'd be getting the votes. But Trump is the only one they believe in, so he's it.

And he's going to continue to be it, because the one thing the existing order (and all their hand-picked candidates) do not want is for the existing order to go away. Trump is going to win the candidacy -- and I believe he'll win the Presidency, too.

1
His recent attempt to threaten the Ricketts family cost him at least one vote: mine. Not because Tom Ricketts owns the Cubs (his parents aren't involved at all with the team, save for being in the family trust), but because Trump tried to stifle their right to express their support for someone other than him

I would rather my president not act like a petulant child. Besides, where would he stop? If he's willing to threaten the founder of TD Ameritrade (personal wealth: $1 billion), what would he do to someone like me? Other than make me disappear, that is?

Nope, while I'm not particularly interested in voting for ANY of the candidates (if some party felt like running an actual turnip for president, I'd have to at least give serious consideration to voting for it), I'd rather vote for someone not so obviously batguano insane.

3
The only way Trump will become president is if Bernie Sanders is the other party's nominee. Trump is not afraid of saying outrageous things, but after he repeated the Code Pink mantra that George W. Bush is a greater monster than Hitler - there is simply going to be too many Republicans who will not work to get him elected if he is the nominee. Having no ground game is not a winning strategy, no matter which party you are - and Trump has not demonstrated any interest in having a ground game.

I think a Saunders-vs-Trump campaign would be awesome: an avowed socialist versus an uber-capitalist!

I also happen to think that Hillary is toast. She's going to be indicted soon, or there's going to be a major scandal about the fact that she isn't being indicted. There are also hints that her health has failed, and rumors that she's an alcoholic. For the time being all those things are being hidden but I don't believe they can be kept secret until after the election. Even if she gets the nomination, she's going to be seriously damaged goods. Her campaign comes down to "Vote for me because I'm a woman" and if she tries to take that against Trump, he'll crush her.

6
While I have no love for Trump at all, I appreciate why he's getting the support he is. It really tears me up when I wind up in mind-numbed political argument defending Trump because the latest tear-down hit-piece was mostly or completely false. I wonder if the latest attempt will gain traction; I've seen an increasing number of stories attempting to link support of Trump (by Republicans of course, not the Democrats who are supporting him) to outright racism. I read one in the Times that included the claim that 20% of Trump supporters opposed the abolishment of slavery. (The question was apparently something like "You oppose the use of all executive orders, would you even oppose an executive order like the emancipation proclamation?"

And of course the Nazis and Klan are for him, but as I've pointed out to several people, the Nazis and Klan are, according to news stories, ALWAYS for the leading, right-leaning candidate. If Trump somehow falls behind Cruz, the Klan and the Nazis will support Cruz.

Trump has also recently publicly favoring Obamacare, except he believes the wrong people are in charge. Having had to deal with Obamacare, I view with disfavor and distaste anyone who favors it. Also, where is his ground game?

Trump is the candidate that the GOP establishment deserves. He is not what the Republican Party (As a whole.) or the United States deserves or should get.

Posted by: cxt217 at February 25, 2016 08:10 PM (O4dlr)

9
This election is a startling display of how disfuntional our politics has become. Neither Hillary, Trump, or Sanders should ever even have been willing to step up, should have had no backing if they did, and should have immediately gone down with 1 or 2% poll ratings. The democrats have nobody that they can realistically present as centrist, so they lie and claim somebody like Obama is a centrist when in reality he was the most liberal nominee until Sanders.
On the Republican side, you can go all the way into squishy RINO territory, and still be viewed, or at least universally portrayed, as a far-right looney.
It is currently impossible to get the support of either party's mainstream wing and have any cross-over to the other party. And it looks like that's going to get us an election where our choices are an incompetent blow-hard, and someone that about half the nation believes should be in prison.

David, the reason is that the establishments of both parties are routinely ignoring what the voters want. If they were listening, and paid attention, there wouldn't be a voter revolt like we're seeing.

Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags:[spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)

At Chizumatic, we take pride in being incomplete, incorrect, inconsistent, and unfair. We do all of them deliberately.